* Posts by UndergroundMan

3 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Jun 2010

Just 22% of techies in UK aged 50 or older, says Chartered Institute for IT

UndergroundMan

The pay in the EU is so much better than the UK, that once you're experienced and willing to move, you can have a much better quality of life outside of the UK. I wonder if this plays into the statistics...

Microsoft officially hangs up on old Skype phones, users fuming

UndergroundMan

I realised last night that the RTX Dualphone 4088 no longer works. The device shows as offline and refuses to connect. I live overseas and bought one for myself and one for my parents so we can talk for free. They're older so this phone is ideal compared to a fiddly smartphone that they can't work with. Microsoft/Skype have blown our means of communication out of the water.

Though Microsoft/Skype announced the death of SkypeKit, it's far from clear on the Skype website that it would affect the 4088. I mean... I never thought of it as a Skype "landline" phone because it doesn't use a landline, it only connects via wifi.

Amazon have kindly offered a refund. As of ~10am, the phone now lists as unavailable so at least new buyers won't be duped. I contacted the seller, who responded that they too hadn't anticipated the service termination. Saying I'm disappointed in Skype's (aka Microsoft's) handling of this is an understatement.